Paul Adrian Fried / HAMLET'S BIBLE

If Londoners in Shakespeare’s England heard that his play, Hamlet, was in part about the incestuous marriage of a king, what did they expect? Elizabeth was still queen when it was first performed, and still remembered long after James took the throne. Some thought she was only legitimate if her father, Henry VIII, had been right to divorce his first wife, Catherine of Aragon, over claims that the marriage violated biblical laws.[1] There had been a popular earlier play, A Looking Glass for London, about a king saved from an incestuous marriage by an act of God (lightning bolt). The king heeds a prophet sent by God and repents. Happy ending. Such a play could affirm Protestant Elizabethan hopes, that yes, biblically incestuous marriage is wrong, and Henry VIII was right to divorce Catherine, although the pope disagreed. And yes, he was right to break with Rome to get his divorce. Therefore, his second marriage was legitimate, Elizabeth was legitimate, and all was right with the ...

What Bible verses relate to the allegedly incestuous marriages of Henry VIII and Claudius in Shakespeare’s Hamlet? Mainly two. These may seem contradictory, but examined carefully, make sense. [Image: Mishneh Torah (Maimonides), Perugia, c. 1400 (Elie Kedouri, The Jewish World, 1979, p. 193). Illuminated Hebrew manuscript. National Library of Israel, Jerusalem. Photo is from replica at the Diaspora Museum, Tel Aviv. Fair use. Via Wikimedia.org .] First, Arthur Tudor died without any children, so Deuteronomy 25:5-10 seems to apply: Verse 5 explains: If a brother dies without children (especially a male child in Hebrew biblical culture), his widow should not marry a “stranger” outside the family; a surviving brother should take the brother’s widow as a wife. (This is called "levirate marriage.") Verse 6: The first child she bears by this new marriage will be considered the child of the dead brother, to carry on his line and legacy. (Yes, very patriarchal.) Verses 7...